I'm gonna try to get all this typed!
After I gave birth and the nurses were doing all the checks and stuff, they noticed that his blood sugar was low. With the OneTouch it was in the 30's so they sent blood to the lab and it came back 21! It needed to stay above 40. So they let me nurse him and it was still low so they took him to the nursery to put an IV in to give him some sugar water. This was around 5-5:30. Well, around 7:30-ish, we decided to go see him--I walk around the corner and he's got a CPAP on! I was a little freaked! So the nurse who had been working with him before the shift change was still there and she told us that she had noticed him getting a little pale and she checked his Oxygen levels and they were low. So she was just letting the O2 blow in his face but his levels weren't improving, so the doc said to try the CPAP. They then ordered chest x-rays and blood cultures to see if he had any infection. The doc then came over and told us that the x-ray looked like he might have pneumonia! But they would wait on preliminary blood work to see--in the mean time, they went ahead and started him on antibiotics. They also ordered an ultrasound of his heart to rule out any problems there that might would make him have breathing problems. We went back to the room and then returned to the nursery around 10-10:30 when the doc said they wanted to intubate him to help him thru the night and they would be able to administer surfactant to help open up his lungs. Oh, and the heart u/s was normal--WHEW! The doc asked me a lot of questions about weather or not all my cultures done prior to delivery had been negative, and they had been. Then he said he really didn't think he had pneumonia because my water hadn't been broken for an extended period of time, I showed no signs of any type infection, and my cultures had been negative. He was now leaning more toward the lungs just not being developed quite enough. So we agreed to have him intubated and we also agreed to let them try to put in lines to the umbilical artery and vein--they got one, couldn't get the other--but this way they could draw blood without sticking him everytime time--and by this time he'd already been treated like a little pin cushion! Poor baby! So with the vent, the IV in his arm, heart monitors, pulse-oximeter--he looked like a very sick baby. VERY SCARY!
12 hours later, he was off the vent and was extubated. One line down! And they finally let me start nursing him again. But he was taking an hour to eat! We tried with a Supplemental Nursing System and he still was taking forever. We put a feeding tube back down his nose so we knew he wasn't starving and I could still work on nursing him. Then one of the nurses suggested we try using the SNS on our finger and finger feed him (they knew I didn't want to give him a bottle if I could help it.) So, he seemed to do better, but was still slow. So the nurse said that at one of the feedings that night, she would use the SNS with him and let me sleep! So, that night as she was feeding him, she noticed he had a strong suck reflex but something was wrong because it was taking him so long. So she called the lactation consultant who examined his mouth--he was tongue-tied! He couldn't stick his tongue out enough to get it around the nipple of my breast or a bottle!
I can't remember what lines came out next--I do know that they had to relocate his IV because it was leaking. They tried to find veins in his arms to use to no avail--as a last resort they had to put it in his head! The IV finally came out when we could prove he was gaining weight on milk--not on sugar water! After the feeding tube came out, I HAD to prove to them that I could get him to take a bottle before they would let us leave--so I lost that battle. It upset me very much--especially since I felt like my milk supply was diminishing and I NEEDED him to nurse!
Oh, the best news was that the blood cultures all came back negative for infection--so NO pneumonia. Just respiratory distress syndrome as they say--he just needed a little help from the surfactant and vent.
I think that's about it--if I remember more, I'll edit this.
I need to go now--little one has a doc appt this morning--Pray he's gained weight and not LOST it!
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